Tin-shackle seal.



W. M. BROOKS.

TIN SHAGKLE SEAL.

APPLICATION mun 11.15, 1913.

1,062,879. Patented May 27, 1913.

WIT 5555s I INVENTOR Z @xib,

A Home col-warm PLANOORAPH C0,, WASHINGTON. D: C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WINFRED MUDGE BROOKS, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOB TO E. J. BROOKS 8c 00.. OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

TIN-SHACKLE SEAL.

Patented May 27,1913.

Application filed March 15,1913. Serial No. 754,570.

To all whom it may concern I Be it known that I, TVINFRED MUDGE BROOKS, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tin- Shackle Seals, of which the following is a specification. V

This invention relates, in common with numerous improvements by Edward J.

Brooks, to press-fast-enable seals primarily designed for securing the doors of railway freight cars. An example of such seals is set forth in the specification of United States Letters Patent No. 818,344, granted April 17, 1906, to said Edward J. Brooks, for an improvement in seals to which the present improvement is more particularly additional. The seal shown and described in that patent is what is known as a tinshackle horse-shoe seal, characterized by a flexible shackle of tin (tin plate) having eyes at both ends, and an open-faced compressible seal part of lead or a suitable soft metal alloy. Such seals, broadly speaking, have been tampered with without immediate detection by cutting one shackle end near the lead and reinserting it in the lead after replacing the seal. I

The present invention consists in an improved seal, of the above type; and its leading objects are to insure immediate detection in case a seal is so tampered with, and to facilitate inspecting such seals from time to time to determine whether they have been violated.

Other objects will be set forth in the general description which follows:

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figures 1 and 2 are face and edge views respectively of an improved seal; Fig. 3 is an elevation of the same ready for the seal press; Fig. 4 is a like view of the press fastened seal; Fig. 5 is a magnified cross-section on the line AB, Fig. 3; and Fig. 6 is a magnified cross section on the line CD, Fig. 4.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in all the figures.

The improved seal, in common with said patented seal, is composed of a flexible shackle, a, of tin plate hereinafter termed tin, and a compressible seal part b of suitable soft metal, hereinafter termed lead; the

-former having eyes 1 and 2 at both ends, and the seal part being attached at the factory. to one shackle end, and constructed wlth a central stud, 3, and an embrasured surrounding horse-shoe shaped wall, 4, to engage-with the eye (2) of theother shackle end; and preferably with horns 5 and 6 to facilitate centering the seal part in the seal press. also preferably have in common embossed distinguishing marks represented by C &

Y Ry. and the Serial Number 25,97 5

The shackle a of the improved seal is characterized by a pair of machine punched apertures 7 and 7 adjacent to the eyes 1 and 2 respectively, and so located that. in the press-fastened seal (Fig. 4), the apertures 7 and 7 coincide, and daylight is visible through them as long as the seal is intact. Should the shackle be cut it would be impracticable to restore this feature, as it would be impracticable to successfully counterfeit a machine punched aperture by hand, and simply reinserting the cut end would close the aperture of the uncut shackle end.

The apertures 7 and 7 are alined as above by the intersection of said central stud 3 and embrasured wall 4 with said eyes 1 and 2 when the seal is made ready for the seal press, as shown in Fig. 3, without any additional adjustments or movements of the shackle ends or either of them, and maintain this effective relation in the press-fastened seal, Fig. 4.

The improved shackle a; is further characterized by Y-shaped stiffening ribs, 8 and 9, embossed in the respective shackle ends; with the stem of each adjoining the terminal eye 1 or 2, and its bifurcation partly sur rounding the adjoining aperture 7 or 7, so as to reinforce the contracted shanks of the eyes 1 and 2 and to assist in preventing the reproduction of one of the apertures 7, 7 should the shackle be out. After passing the free shackle end through a pair of cardoor-fastening staples c and (Z, or the like, it is interlocked with the seal part Z) as in Fig. 3, and then press-fastened, as in Fig. 4, by means of a suitable seal press.

For the purposes of this invention the apertures 7, 7 may obviously be of other shapes; and other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

The tin shackles of thetwo seals.

Having thus described said improvement,

under this specification:

1. An improved"press-fastenable tinshackle seal having, in combination, an open-faced seal part of lead having a central: stud and, an embrasured horse-shoe shaped wall surrounding said stud, and a flexible fiat shackle one end of which is prelim inarily fastened in the seal part and the other end terminates in an eye 'adapted to embrace said stud within said wall; the shackle being further provided with inspection facilitating apertures in its respective ends, formed and arranged to coincide with each other when said eye is engaged with said. stud and Wall, and in the fastened seal.

open-faced shackle -end inclosing seal part 20 of'lead, a flexible flat'shackle both ends of wvhich terminate in eyes connected with the body of'the shackle by narrow shanks, and are provided with apertures formed and arranged to coincide with each other in the 25 fasteneds'eal, and. Y-shaped stiffening ribs the stems of which reinforce said shanks and their forks partly embrace said apertures, respectively, substantially as hereinbefore specified WINFRED MUDGE BROOKS. \Vitnesses:

DONALD LIVINGSTON, CHARLES C; LURIoH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. 0'. 

